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Mon 25 August 2008

Saturday was the real transition day into the return of nice blue skies and warm breezes. Sunday it was bright, sunny, and warm all day. I went out to clean up some of the larger debris around the Vero Villa and expect James will get the rest of it when he mows, blows, and trims around here - I'm hoping that will be tomorrow because my grass has not been cut in almost two weeks. It's looking pretty shaggy around here relative to the trim, groomed look I like to keep.

I talked with Walter - the landscape guy - about putting in some more palms between my house and the alley as a buffer. I've already got some growing there - about 15 more would be good. That would provide privacy as well as keep the dust from the ally coming over my way. I do have a concrete fence that is falling apart - it looks like hell. Once the palms are in the 3' high fence can go. When Walt is here I'll talk to him about the North side of the house as well. It seems I'm never done with my projects huh?

Tommy has some digital pictures Drew sent him he'd like for me to fix. They were taking in the Keys with the camera & subjects in the shadow but a bright blue-green Atlantic in the background. As a result the subjects are way dark to the extend they are almost not recognizable. Well I've been playing with them in my image editor with some success. I've tried a couple of different approaches each have a certain advantage over the other. Ultimately I'll be able to lighten the subjects enough without making the background water real bright. It takes several different steps to do this and is something I've really never tried before. If any of you (Syp) are good at this sort of thing, let me know, ok? To give you an idea of what I'm working with I'm posting one of the pictures today - see what I mean?

Just so you know, here is my first attempt of trying to make the picture better. It was a learning process and I'm hoping my next attempt will be a bit better. But like I said, I could use any suggestions or help from the peanut gallery out there especially those who's first language is Dutch - hint hint.

I talked with Ryan yesterday and he reports there is no news on Tom's test results as yet. I wanted to ask him about putting a switch behind a router so as to enable more IP cams should I decide to add another one. He said it might work which is about the same conclusion I came to having done research on the internet. I'll know when I test it this coming week - I've ordered both an IP cam and a switch.

I've also ordered a La Crosse WS-2308AL Weather Pro Center to give me another toy with which to play. This should be a cool home weather station with all the data it can record and interface it with weather software on my computer. Do I need it? - heck no but I'll have fun with it. You see now I'll be able to complain about the specific amount of wind & rain here at the Vero Villa. This is a step up from my wireless indoor - outdoor thermometer. Click on the link so you can see what I mean.

Ah...this week will find me busy with my new toys and let me not forget to mention Georgia Tech plays it's first game of the season Thursday night in Atlanta.